


Temptation Revelation

by cyberjellies



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-11 06:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5617534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberjellies/pseuds/cyberjellies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's not over yet."</p>
<p>Though Shadow Moses is behind them, Snake and Liquid find each other once more. But before they end this fight between snakes, they learn the truth of each others' pasts. </p>
<p>Metal Gear Solid AU where Liquid survives Shadow Moses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rinse and Repeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake is stuck in a stressful but routine life while reflecting on how his life changed, for better or worse, half a year ago. It seems to be for worse.

Buy the cigarettes, talk to Otacon, eat, sleep.

Snake's daily life had begun to blur together into a pattern. It felt too much like being in retirement again. Except he was not alone with fifty huskies and a bottle of whiskey. More like... one babbly computer programmer on a screen and fifty cigarettes. If it was a particularly exciting day.

Half a year after leaving Alaska, Snake and Otacon kept in touch so they could form Philanthropy. Though both of them were passionate about stopping the spread of Metal Gear, neither had taken the role of a revolutionary before. Snake was a mercenary, and Otacon an engineer. Not the most convincing duo in appealing to the media and government. Nastasha, luckily, was lending a hand with an auto biography of what had happened on Shadow Moses, but even then, publishing that was proving to be a daunting task.

While she sorted out her novel's trouble, Snake and Otacon worked with more direct matters. Discussing potential governments Metal Gear could be targeted towards, how it would be transported, who else was involved, et cetera. Despite the urgency of the matter, because they couldn't act upon every hypothesis without surefire evidence, they had to sit on their hands and wait for more information to slip by. Snake was never one to wait.

Buy the cigarettes. Talk to Otacon.

Nothing again today. Just another rumor floating around to try and get them off the real scent. Otacon said he'd call later on the Codec if anything else popped up. What he meant to say was that they were at another dead end.

Jamming his hand into his pocket, Snake pulled out a pack of cigarettes, dumped one into his hand, and shoved the pack back inside. He used to enjoy a smoke. Now it was necessary, or else he was sure he'd be tempted into drinking again. He couldn't think of any other ways to stop feeling so boxed in. The only things that ever got his mind off of his concerns were that and moving. And for a city so big, there wasn't much of it. Just tedium and haze, gray face after gray building, footsteps getting lost into the noise that encompassed the streets.

Otacon once suggested getting a gym membership. He scoffed at that. Snake could only predict a fight and a lawsuit happening there. With a mouth like his, he'd only end up pissing off some machismo protein junkie. Not to mention that gyms constantly kept him aware of himself. Aware that others are watching him and gauging him. It was a stupid thing to be thinking about. Regardless, having all those eyes in one place made him uneasy.

Something he'd picked up ever since Shadow Moses, he assumed. Too many people watching him.

He grunted softly and clenched his jaw, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth before it got crushed between his teeth. Being watched. He got into far too many questionable conversations with people he thought he could trust because he was being watched at all the wrong times. Naomi, Campbell, hell, even Grayfox came from the dead and watched him like some spectre. Snake clenched his hands. Fox. He felt the rest of his body tense up, though he kept walking with the crowd on the sidewalk. No one was the wiser. Stop thinking about Fox.

But he was on edge again. Nervous about what? What's to be nervous about? No one knows him here. No one here to watch him, nothing worth watching besides a stir crazy man just waiting for some action. He needed to be in action. What else was he good for?

Snake felt a tremor up his spine, cold and sharp. God, no. He was not going to go there. It'd be like playing into Liquid's "genetic" molds he tried so hard to convince him of. 

Don't think of Liquid. Don't think of Fox. Don't think of Shadow Moses. Do anything but that.

A glance at his cigarette. It was going to be a waste. But there was more where that came from. Dropped it to the ground, pulverizing paper and tobacco with the sole of his shoe. On the foot he used to put it out, he pushed himself forward, sprinting. The slow mass of people in front of him parted after a second of registering "ohmygodthere'samanrunningsrightatus." Most were startled and upset at the sudden action, spitting out curses at his back. Someone tried to grab him. Snake didn't think of them and pushed on.

Someone watching must've thought that he was some professional athlete. That he wanted to run to feel exhilaration, to break limits, to see how far his legs took him. Something inspirational bull like that. But he just ran because there was nothing else to do. It was the closest he could get to reliving a mission, though there were no tanks or choppers after him this time. That was the best reasoning Snake could think of.

It was spontaneous. It wasn't thought out, it wasn't smart, it was stupid, and that was fine. 

Thinking too much was the very problem. Not enough of acting on anything. Impulse control be damned, if running like hell through a busy sidewalk was what he needed right now, it was what he needed. There could be worse options. But he ran anyways. God knows where he was going. But considering the tangle of sidewalks scattered throughout the city, he wasn't leaving. Just getting lost somewhere.

There was a tan blur in front of him, exiting a corner. Then a mess of golden blonde hair smacking him in the face, effectively stopping his sprint. They both hit the ground, Snake landing on top of the stranger, pushing the breath out of them. Pedestrians paused, then stepped around them, as if they were a caution sign. Snake coughed and rolled off of the stranger, one hand pressed to his forehead and the other stretched out to them. 

"Damn... Sorry about that. Didn't see you at the corner there. C'mon. Up you go, champ."

"Shut up! Don't touch me!" The stranger swatted Snake's hand away angrily. They didn't seem to be hurt that much, but in the chaos, their face was covered by their hair, which they were trying to push out of their eyes.

"Did I hit you harder than I thought? I was going pretty fast."

"I said shut up! You've done enough!"

They blindly swung out their arm again, trying to get Snake away, but he caught their wrist before it connected with his shoulder. 

"Listen, I knocked you over, I think I should be a little concerned for you!"

"Leave me be, you fool!"

They bickered for a short amount of time on Snake's unwanted assistance until they both gave up and decided to stand up themselves.

"Why don't you have a shirt on? It's the middle of December."

"I have a coat, I'm fine."

"Not answering my question there."

"I don't need to tell you."

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Positive. I've survived worse situations. This is nothing."

The stranger brushed the dust off their coat and ran their hands through their hair, finally exposing their face. A man, in his thirties, like Snake, with blue eyes, and a sharp, defined nose. He had tan skin, surprisingly so, considering the season, and high cheekbones like. He wore a grim frown, reminiscent of Snake's own, but then he smiled. Snake assumed it to be good natured, but it looked more like a shit eating grin to him. Regardless of what kind of smile it was, it faded as soon as they looked at each other hard enough.

They stood there, staring at one another. Eyes wide. Mouth closed. The world carried on around them, but they didn't feel it. Time was agonizingly slow. It was like reliving the cold hell they had experienced half a year before. Painful and slow and impossible.

"Brother."


	2. Exhaust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liquid recalls waking up in snow and dead people. He then suggests another death match with Snake.

Liquid woke up, buried beneath a sheet of snow, still next to the charred heap of a car Meryl had driven to escape from him. The pain wasn't there, instead, an uncomfortable numbness. He breathed sharply through his nose, and flexed his fingers gingerly. 

He could move. Miraculous. So he'd just succumbed to his injuries, instead of FOXDIE, as he'd thought. His body gave up before his mind did, and he cursed silently at this inconvenience. 

But he was alive. And Shadow Moses wasn't bombed to hell.

Sluggishly, he pushed himself from the ground, finding that his limbs were shaking violently while he did so. No doubt he was catching hypothermia. How long had he been out here? He couldn't care to know. He needed to get inside. The more energy he spent thinking the less was being put into moving.

Despite the growing pain in his muscles, Liquid forced his body to keep moving despite how every other sense of him was screaming at him to give up, to let himself die, to lay down and accept his fate. He refused. With each wave of pain and exhaustion, his steps became steadier and faster. He had come this far, he will not die here when his comrades died for him as well. 

His team. Foxhound. They were all dead, sans Ocelot, the cowardly bastard that escaped. Liquid clenched his jaw. He knew there was something untrustworthy about him.

The blonde made it back inside the base, pulled a coat over himself, and patched himself up as well as he could with the circumstances. He began to think of what to use to ride out of Shadow Moses, what to do after this, but his thoughts were too focused on his teammates. Specific ones, at least. There was a lack of closure between them all. It felt wrong to just leave them without goodbyes.

Before he left, he had to find them. There were two of them he had to see again.

\-------------------------------------------------

Liquid saw Wolf first, out in the snowfield. Some of her wolf dogs were around her body, mourning, and when he approached, they growled and snapped at him. But only for a few moments. They lowered their heads briefly, sniffing at the snow and whimpering, then threw them back in a sad chorus of howls. They scampered off quickly, leaving Liquid alone with her. 

But it was surprising. Her corpse was tended to after her death. By whom, Liquid couldn't tell. But they did a fair job of keeping her decent. Her handkerchief was laid over her face, albeit stained with sparse droplets of blood, and the blood that hadn't soaked into her jacket was wiped away. Her body was positioned as if she were sleeping on her back, legs together and body straight. Blonde hair fanned out from her body, like a halo, a stark contrast to the rifle she cradled lovingly. 

There was a warm pain in his chest as he examined her. She was a close friend, from a long time ago. Not long after his father had found him in Africa, he also found Wolf. She was much younger than Liquid, but she had seen much more war and bloodshed. Both of them being children resentful at adults participating in war forged a bond. But with the incident of Liquid hijacking Sahelanthropus, they were separated. Neither expected to see another again.

The wheel of fate turned regardless of expectations and led them back to each other. Comrades again for a cause they both believed in. She had grown beautiful and cynical; a combination Liquid appreciated. 

Her confidence was enough to be offputting to the other men who hadn't quite learned that women had as much place on the battlefield as men. And as for those who considered her an equal, she always did something to raise their opinion. She carried herself with pride, a pride that she felt was connected to her people as well. 

But there was no pride in dead bodies. 

Liquid pressed his hand to hers, cold and stiff, muttered a farewell, and continued walking with a heavy heart for what he knew he was about to face.

\-------------------------------------------------

Mantis wasn't hard to find. But he was harder to look at. 

His office was in shambles, broken vases and busts thrown across the room and laying in splintered pieces along the floor. The chairs from the small casual seating area away from his desk were overturned and punctured with bullet holes. Blood splattered the floor in random places, likely from Mantis moving around so much, but there was a trail that led to the small pool that Mantis's body lay in.

His body was sprawled out across the plush rug in front of his desk. The dark holes riddling his chest and abdomen were covered with messy sprays of maroon, now dried and crisp to the touch. Mantis's head was turned over to the side, facing away from Liquid. 

Liquid's throat tightened painfully, like someone was choking him. This didn't feel real. None of it did. 

"Mantis."

He didn't know what he expected. Some sort of supernatural occurrence, maybe. A ghost. A sign. But there was nothing. Just silence and his own ragged breathing.

A sob escaped his lips, and he trembled. None of that. He knelt down to Mantis's body and lightly traced his fingers over the bullet holes in his bodysuit, feeling the torn fabric and dried blood. Liquids hands balled up into fists and pressed into his body, nudging him. 

"Mantis, Snake is gone. Get up so we can leave already."

He didn't know why he was talking to his body like he was alive. He knew he was dead from the moment he drew his last breath. The psychic's ghost must have been laughing at him for that. If he was watching. Liquid removed Mantis's mask, putting it to side and examined his face as well. Past his scars and the disfigurement, he looked tired, but peaceful, as if he'd drifted into sleep. But the blood that trailed from his mouth and nose ruined the illusion of this. 

He was used to the stitches. Never the blood.

Liquid felt another swelling of emotion inside him and inhaled sharply. No tears. He was a soldier and a weapon, and tears had no place in someone like him. He hit his fist against the wound in his abdomen, breathing heavily as his own blood dripped into the carpet, mingling with the dark scent of death the room held.

_Just go. He's dead. There's nothing to be done about it, now quit your daydreaming and get out._

"Tretij..." The name felt heavy on his tongue. "I'll get him for you. I'll get revenge for all of us." 

Empty words for an empty promise. He wouldn't know where or how to find him, since he's been effectively rendered a dead man, or so he presumed. What resources did he have? What men could he rely on? There was nothing and no one left. 

His thumb lightly caressed Mantis's cheek.

_Stop being so weak. You're a soldier._

He wiped the dried blood off of his chin and lips.

_You were never meant for a civilian's life. You're a weapon._

Liquid pressed his lips tenderly to Mantis's. They were cold.

_You're a soldier. You're strong. You're above this._

...No.

In this moment, he was none of those things. He was a man named Eli who had lost the most important person in the world to him.

He let the sorrow take over his pride. Wrapping his arms around Tretij's torso, he pulled his body close to him, cradling him gently. Eli sobbed into his shoulder, heaving and shaking, screaming until his throat went raw.

\-------------------------------------------------

And now, here he was. Face to face with the murderer who had killed his men, his friends, _his Tretij_ , and the bastard just ran into him. Liquid had never felt such fear and anger towards one man at once.

Liquid masked his unease with irritation, and hid his shaking hands in his pockets. Snake didn't respond to him. The stone cold face Liquid was used to seeing was unreadable. His eyes were alert, but they said nothing. It was unsettling. Snake edged away from him, cautious and already getting into a CQC stance.

"What are you running from, eh, Snake?"

"I'm not running from anything," he snapped, hands clenching into balls at his side. "What are you doing here, Liquid?" His voice was low and hostile, a stark contrast to the light hearted banter he exchanged with him moments before.

He probably thought this was some trick. Somehow Liquid tracked him down all the way from his supposed icy grave in Alaska to have his revenge on his brother. Despite how much he wanted to exact said revenge on him, it was not the case. 

Liquid could always trick him into thinking that, so he could toy with him like before, but he was in no mood for tricks.

"If you think I've tracked you down after all this time to settle the fight we had back on Shadow Moses... You're wrong." Snake hesitated a moment, eyes flicking up to Liquid's and back down to the hands that he was keeping hidden in his coat pockets. 

"Maybe we were drawn together, brother. The strangest cases in siblings have always been thought to be twins, aren't they?"

"What are you talking about, Liquid? What game are you playing?"

"On the contrary, Snake. I'm through with playing games. No more plans or schemes up my sleeve. I wasn't expecting this, but we can do this now, if you have the time. We'll put this curse of our heritage to rest." 

Snake still looked skeptical, but regardless, the people walking around them began to slow and crowd instead. They must've thought they were going to fight, what with the glares they were giving each other and Snake's stance. Liquid glanced briefly at the crowd, and Snake followed suit , but he seemed much more troubled by this. His arms dropped and his back straightened, his eyes darting around from person to person. The crowd now focused towards Liquid, to see his reaction.

Liquid smiled, but it was forced. Clapping a hand on his brother's shoulder, he steered him away from the mass, walking with him down the sidewalk.

"I'm tired of this, brother. Let's end it."

Snake was silent, but dug through his pockets for a cigarette, lit it, and blew the smoke into Liquid's face.

"I know a place. I have time to kill anyways."


	3. Call His Bluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited "fight it out" scene between Liquid and Snake has much more talking than either one expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not graphic, but there is a good amount of fighting going on in here. EDIT 1: Added in some dialogue and edited some lines so some scenes would flow a little better and match with what I was initially going for.

Snake took Liquid to one of the "parks" that the city never finished. Tucked away behind some abandoned buildings and trees, it seemed like a recluse's retreat. Because of the less than glamorous surroundings, there was never a push for completion, so it just sat there, abandoned and overgrown.

It was a plot of land filled with grass and small patches of wildflowers, bordered by oak trees and overgrowth. The grey slate of the buildings that peered over some of the taller trees were highlighted by the bright orange of the setting sun. There was one small metal sign by the sidewalk that was supposed to have its name, but it had rusted over with time, so much so that it didn't reflect any light. It was nothing but a useless piece of scrap.

The brothers maintained an uneasy distance between one another while they walked together. Every time one of them flexed their fingers or shifted their weight, the other tensed up, eyes looking over one another nervously. It was hard to trust that both of them would've actually waited to get to the park to start fighting.

But once Snake saw that empty lot, he momentarily forgot about the tension. Ever since he moved out to the city, he'd always try to find new places to be alone. No matter where he was, even if he was only there for a few weeks, he'd find somewhere quiet to get away from the unnecessary pains caused by people.

Snake could be many things when the time called for it, but a people person? Never.

He looked around the park once again, to check for people, though he knew no one was there. Snake let out a sigh of content, despite himself. 

"I come around here every once and a while to get some fresh air alone. I've never seen someone on this side of town, so there won't be any interupt-"

He felt a fist drive into his stomach before he could finish. He doubled over and Liquid's knee smashed into his face.

Snake staggered backwards, but regained his footing. Wiping his nose with the back of his palm, a streak of blood was smeared across his skin. He could smell the copper already. He nodded but smiled grimly at his hand, knowing full well he had it coming. 

"Not wasting any time, huh?"

Liquid said nothing, but his stare was wrathful enough to warrant that. Unlike the other encounters Snake had with him, there was no sense of conceit or glee in the way he held himself. In fact, he seemed more distressed than anything. He was constantly moving, shuffling around, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

It was unsettling.

Snake settled into his fighting stance, arms up and feet apart. He shifted slowly and deliberately to his right, and Liquid followed suit. The two of them circled each other, eyes unwavering. Steps mirroring the other's. Slow. Trying to find their opponent's weakest spot.

Before Liquid had the chance to take him off guard again, Snake rushed in first, going in for a haymaker. The blonde dodged in time for it to just graze him, but he still winced, slowing down for a fraction of a second, but not before he hit him with a one two punch straight to Snake's chest.

He wheezed slightly, and stepped back quickly, catching his breath.

There was a moment's pause where they stared each other down, trying to predict the next maneuver, but Liquid took the initiative once more, closing the distance between them and throwing his fists at Snake.

He meant it when he said he wanted to finish this. There was barely time to breathe between the hits, and Snake was struggling to keep up. It was a relentless wall of punches, and with every swing Snake tried to take, Liquid followed back up with two more. There was no time to dwell on tactics now. He just had to move. 

As Liquid raged on, Snake could feel that he was already working himself to exhaustion. Though the initial attack caught him off guard, Liquid was spending far too much time trying to keep up the momentum, and his movements were getting sloppy. This gave Snake the openings he needed.

Liquid's right hook swung too hard, and he couldn't recover in time before Snake grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder. The blonde landed with a thud on his back, disoriented, and Snake took this opportunity to climb on top of him and pummel him senseless.

Every punch hit solidly against Liquid's cheeks, yet he was still unfazed, and he managed to wrestle his pinned arm from underneath Snake and jab him in the kidney. He groaned in pain and rolled off, palm pressed to the injury.

The blonde staggered to his feet, breathing heavily. He tried to stomp on Snake's side while he was still on the ground, but Snake rolled again, and came to an awkward tumble back to his feet.

"Y'know, while I was bringing you here I thought it was a good idea to get this settled. But it seems to me no one's winning at this point." 

Liquid snarled, "That's not the point! It's not about who will win here. It's about ending it."

"Are you telling me you want both of us to die fighting?" Snake asked incredulously. 

"That's all we were ever good for... That's all we'll ever be good for." The blonde's voice became tired again, as if Snake's question drained what spirit he had left in him. 

_This guy really doesn't give up with that, does he?_

"Maybe for you. But I have different plans for my life. All the things I've done as a soldier have past." 

"You never learn, Snake... We were designed to be soldiers, and we've never had a past to begin with. It's our present. We'll only ever be in the present." Liquid took in a deep breath and placed a hand to his temples, his fingers covering his eyes. "I want it to be over." It was a faint whisper, but Snake could hear it well enough. 

"You want this to be over?" Snake retorted, opening his palms and gesturing back out to the sidewalk. "Then go back to whatever you were doing before I ran into you. Live out your life. Forget about this whole Big Boss and Outer Heaven crap."

"This is a hell of a time to be telling me this, brother." 

"I mean it. All this fighting is insane. I don't want to prove anything, I want it to be over too. So just find a new life, and forget about this entire thing. If I did it, there's no reason you can't." 

"Are you afraid?" Liquid's question came out as more of a taunt than an actual question. 

"Of course I'm afraid."

Silence. Liquid's face relaxed from its disdain, and the hand that was pressed to his face fell to his side. His mouth opened slightly, brows up to the sky.

"You're actually admitting you're afraid? Why would you?"

"My life's not about this whole Big Boss clone conspiracy. I may be made from the same stuff, but I'm not him. I'm certain about that.

There's things I still want to do. Things I have to do. Promises I have to keep, no matter what. If we kept fighting, maybe one of us would die. But I don't want it to end here for me. It's not my time yet."

Liquid almost looked moved, but the rage settled in again. His right arm swung up, balled into a fist; a motion Snake noticed that he did often.

"Keep your sentimentality to yourself, brother!" He spat out the words with venom. "This isn't about your dreams! Whatever softness you've developed from civilian life doesn't apply to killers like us!"

Snake held back the bitterness in his stomach that he felt for that comment.

"I already told you, my life isn't written in my genes." Snake' s jaw was clenched as he said this.

Liquid's energy came back, but it was still full of fury. "Just because you say it doesn't make it true. You can't fight what you're made of, what you're entire being is. There is no room in the world for us snakes pretending to be people." 

"I'm not going to just lay down and accept some sob story that's supposed to make me feel like I'm obligated to do what my _genes_ tell me to do!" 

"You deny it all, still. You're a pathetic fool."

Snake's patience was running thin at that point, but the petty jab was enough to make him snap. Perhaps it was the build up of physical pain and the memories of Shadow Moses coming back in clarity. The stress of his new life merging with this last shred of his old life. But Snake was positive that it was just Liquid's presence, regardless of whether he was angry or not.

When Snake fought him at Shadow Moses, there was too much on the line to make such childish reasons to attack. But as the sunset's harsh color mixed into itself like watercolors of blood and fire, Liquid's visage became more and more like the monster Snake had nightmares of. 

The man who killed his closest comrade. The one who had nearly killed the first person he had let himself be vulnerable around. This horrific mistake of a man who had almost made him question his own humanity after all he had to live through, the one who was calling him a fool to his face.

This man shared his face. And yet there couldn't be more of a distinction between the two. 

Pathetic? He'd show him pathetic.

"Denying what? Some bullshit that we're killer machines built to stay that way? Maybe I am, but at least I'm not trying to live up to it! Giving up everything else you could do with your life just to come back at me? To kill or get killed? What do you call that?"

"Stop talking."

Snake would not. He approached the blonde man, feet stomping into the ground as if he were trying to shake Liquid into feeling fear.

"You were in charge of so many men. The genome soldiers. Your goddamn team. You let them die because you had some sadistic motive to watch me die by your hands."

Liquid began to walk backwards, and Snake could see a slight quiver in his step.

"What kind of a leader were you? To excuse trying to save your men because you thought your genes were telling you to do it? It wasn't because you cared. But because you were so wrapped up with thinking that your DNA was some sort of unstoppable force. That it commanded you to do something for them without your say. And if they died? Just blood greasing the cogs of your plan, nothing more or less.

Despite everything, your team must have believed in you. They never stopped to doubt you, not once. Only Wolf ever thought twice about what Foxhound really was to her." Liquid twitched. He hit a nerve.

"The rest of them believed in what you could do to change the world. But you weren't doing just to change it, it was all for your petty grudge at Big Boss! I hated him too, but you know what? I never hated him enough to forget my own damn identity!"

With a strangled scream, Liquid charged forward, shoulder first, and knocked Snake to the ground. He quickly sprang back up, but the blonde grabbed Snake's upper arms, trying to throw him onto the ground. Snake did so in kind, and tried forcing Liquid out of his stance, but he pushed forward, still shrieking. It was a hell of a noise; a raw, wretched noise that was breaking in on itself.

Snake's heel dug into the soft soil as they continued to grapple, hands clawing at each others' arms. Liquid's grip was like iron, but if there was anything to make up for it, it was that his stance was weak.

Snake pushed his left knee forward, catching Liquid off balance, loosening his grip and his stance. Snake used this opportunity to lower himself and ram into Liquid's core, hooking an arm around the back of his leg, and jerked it forward, slamming Liquid's head into the ground, delirious and confused.

"S-Snake... I'll kill you. D-damn you to hell.. You'll pay for that- Snake, I'll get you..." He sounded like a broken record, both in what he said and how he said it. His words were cut off from another with unintelligible mumbles and murmurs of pain.

Snake didn't feel sorry for a single bit of it. After all that he had to go through, he considered the two of them even at this point. He could leave him, bleeding and with a concussion out in the growing darkness of the park. It was unlikely that he'd find him again, especially if Snake told Otacon this. He'd get him some home out on the other side of the country , Snake would leave, and that would be that. Pretend as if this encounter was nothing more than a bad dream.

But, with hesitation, Snake extended his hand to him again.


End file.
